Cannonball Read 17

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time

Confirming Jemisin belongs on my must-read list

Killing Moon by N.K. Jemisin

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I loooooved the Broken Earth trilogy, but did not love The City We Became, so I wasn’t quite sure what to expect when I picked up the first in Jemisin’s Dreamblood ‘duology.’ I am happy to report that it’s great. I think I just prefer my fantasy novels to be wholly fantastic, with none of that pesky real-world crossover. I much prefer the fictional (but loosely based on ancient Egypt) Gujaareh over New York City. Gujaareh is a city steeped in religion and its accompanying […]

Magic City, Magic Boroughs

The City We Became by N.K. Jemisin

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If you love New York City, as I do, you’ll love this book as much as I did (my favorite read of 2022 so far by far). Let’s just start there. Like author N.K. Jemisin, I’m an NYC transplant, even if she had more experience visiting it in her youth than I did. Like her, I came with an understanding and expectation of what I thought the city was and was going to be for me. And, according to the afterword, I learned and changed […]

A city that comes alive

The City We Became by N.K. Jemisin

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The City We Became by N.K. Jemisin is a unique science fiction novel that brings cities to life. When a city becomes “great” a human inhabitant becomes its avatar. Except at the start of this novel, the homeless Black boy is chased into hiding. Enter the awakening of the human avatars of each of the five boroughs. The book follows each avatar as they discover their connection to the city. There is a mysterious entity that doesn’t want the city to fully become a great […]

Why did I sit on this? I should have trusted Jemisin more, I blame the pandemic

The City We Became by N.K. Jemisin

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CBR Bingo Square: Cityscape (To Y’all with a physical copy, did you use Google Lens to look at the animated cover?  If not, and you have Google Lens, I recommend checking it out!) I was hyped for The City We Became coming off How Long ’til Black Future Month and the Hugo Award winning run on “The Broken Earth” trilogy.  However, the first chapter of TCWB was the same as a short story in HLtBFM and for some reason this made it difficult for me to get […]

“So, I mean, it’s awesome that, uh, you’re a city? Congratulations! I want to be accepting of this new stage in your identity formation.”

The City We Became by N.K. Jemisin

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I want to try something new with my reviews. Yeah, I could start again with OH WOW. HOW DID I GET SO BEHIND. AGAIN. But snooze, amiright? Instead, I want to use the system that my local library book club does. We always go around the room and give a rating (check, already part of Cannonball and Goodreads) and then sum up our feelings on the book in one word. I’m going to let you know now, I’m a bit of a cheat and I […]

Really good, and I can see why Twitter and CBR love it, but not quite for me

The City We Became by N.K. Jemisin

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I read Jemisin’s Broken Earth trilogy last year and loooooooved it, so when The City We Became showed up as the choice for a meetup group book club, I was excited enough to plan to attend and not just lurk. While I did like it, I didn’t enjoy it as much as I did Broken Earth. When a city has enough people, history, culture, and personality, it can come alive, with a person becoming the living avatar of that city. New York City has hit […]



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